Scandinavian Flick — The Rally Trick Every Dirt Racer Needs
The Scandinavian flick looks like magic — you turn away from a corner, then snap into it, and suddenly you're sideways with perfect angle. It's not magic, it's weight transfer. Rally drivers have been using this for decades to rotate the car on loose surfaces where traditional steering won't cut it. In FH6, mastering the flick is the difference between sliding off cliffs and styling through dirt corners.
The Physics — Why Turning Away Helps You Turn In
It seems backwards. You want to go left, so you steer right first. But the physics makes perfect sense once you understand what's happening to the car's weight.
When you turn the wheel to the right, the car's weight shifts to the left side. The left springs compress, the right springs extend. Now, when you snap the wheel back to the left, two things happen simultaneously. First, the weight that was loaded onto the left springs releases, and the suspension rebounds — pushing the car up on the left side and reducing grip. Second, the sudden direction change creates a massive lateral weight transfer toward the right side. This combination — reduced grip on one side plus sudden lateral load — is what breaks the rear end loose and sends you sideways into the corner.
On dirt and gravel, this effect is amplified because the surface grip is already low. The flick essentially overcomes the surface's natural tendency to make the car understeer. On tarmac, the flick still works but you need more aggressive inputs because there's more grip to overcome. That's why rally drivers use huge, dramatic flicks while tarmac drifters use smaller, quicker ones.
The Pendulum Analogy
Think of the car's rear end as a pendulum. When you swing a pendulum one way, it stores energy. When it swings back, all that energy releases in the opposite direction. The Scandinavian flick does the same thing with the car's weight — you swing the mass one way to store energy, then release it in the direction you actually want to go. The faster and sharper the initial turn-away, the more energy you store, and the more dramatic the rotation into the corner.
Step-by-Step — 4 Phases of a Proper Flick
Phase 1: The Setup (Turn Away)
Approach the corner at speed. About 1-2 car lengths before your normal turn-in point, turn the wheel away from the corner. If it's a right-hand corner, turn left. This is the counterintuitive part that takes practice — your brain screams "wrong way!" but you have to commit. The turn-away should be sharp but controlled — maybe 30-45 degrees of steering angle, held for about half a second. Too gentle and you won't transfer enough weight. Too aggressive and you'll lose the rear before you want to.
Phase 2: The Snap (Turn In)
As soon as you feel the weight settle on the outside suspension, snap the wheel back toward the corner — fast. This is a violent steering input, much quicker than a normal turn-in. At the same moment, lift off the throttle briefly (or tap the brake if you need more rotation). The combination of the snap turn-in, the weight rebounding, and the lift-off oversteer will break the rear end loose.
Phase 3: The Slide (Manage Angle)
The car is now sideways and sliding toward the apex. This is where most people panic and either countersteer too much (straightening out) or not enough (spinning). Your job here is throttle modulation: too much throttle widens the slide, too little straightens it. Keep the throttle at 40-60% and use small steering corrections to maintain angle. Your eyes should be on the exit, not the apex — you're already committed to the slide, now you need to plan the exit.
Phase 4: The Exit (Straighten Out)
As you pass the apex and the corner opens up, gradually increase throttle while unwinding the steering. The car will naturally straighten as weight shifts rearward under acceleration. Don't snap the wheel back to center — that unsettles the car and can cause a tank-slapper oscillation. Smooth unwind, progressive throttle, and you'll rocket out of the corner with way more exit speed than a traditional grip line would allow on dirt.
Best Cars for the Scandinavian Flick
Not every car flicks well. The ideal flick car has three characteristics: a short wheelbase (faster rotation), a rearward weight bias (easier to break rear traction), and responsive steering (so the snap turn-in actually does something). Here are the cars in FH6 that flick best:
- Lancia Delta S4 (Group B): Short wheelbase, mid-engine, AWD. This is the car rally drivers used to invent the flick. It rotates so willingly you barely need to try — just think about turning away and it's already sideways. The Group B monsters in FH6 all flick beautifully, but the Delta is the most accessible.
- Subaru WRX STI (2004-2006): The classic rally weapon. Front-engine but with a rear-biased AWD system and enough power to steer with the throttle. More forgiving than the Group B cars — you can over-flick and recover without spinning. Great for learning.
- Ford RS200: Another Group B legend. Mid-engine, short wheelbase, and so light that weight transfer happens almost instantly. The downside: it can be twitchy. A small flick goes a long way in this car — overdo it and you'll find yourself facing backwards.
- Audi Quattro S1: Front-engine but with the engine mounted so far forward that it acts almost like a pendulum itself. The long wheelbase makes the flick slower to initiate but more controllable through the slide. Rewards deliberate, well-timed inputs.
- Hoonigan Ford Escort RS Cosworth: Built specifically for Ken Block-style hooning. Massive power, rally-spec suspension, and the kind of steering response that makes flicks feel telepathic. It's expensive in-game but worth every credit if you love dirt driving.
When NOT to Flick
The Scandinavian flick is a specialized tool, not a universal technique. Using it in the wrong situation is slower than driving normally — sometimes dramatically slower. Here's when to keep it in your pocket:
Tight Hairpins on Dirt
This is the flick's natural habitat. Do it here. Tight dirt hairpins are exactly why the technique exists — you physically cannot turn tightly enough on loose gravel without initiating a slide first.
Fast Sweepers (Tarmac or Dirt)
Don't flick here. A fast sweeper rewards grip driving, not sliding. The flick would scrub too much speed, and the resulting slide angle would put you off the racing line. Just brake, turn in normally, and power out. You'll be 1-2 seconds faster than if you'd tried to flick.
Medium-Speed Tarmac Corners
On tarmac, the flick is usually slower than a clean grip line — unless you're specifically drifting for points. Tarmac has enough grip that weight transfer alone rarely breaks traction; you'd need to combine the flick with a clutch kick or handbrake tug, which adds complexity and inconsistency. For pure lap time on pavement, stick to trail braking and late apexing.
Sequences of Linked Corners
If corners are close together, the flick might set you up for the first one but leave you completely misaligned for the second. The flick commits you to a specific exit angle — if that angle points you at a wall for the next corner, you've traded one good corner for one terrible one. Use the flick on isolated corners with clear exits.
Handbrake vs Proper Flick: It's tempting to use the handbrake as a shortcut — pull it, get sideways, done. And on some corners, the handbrake is genuinely faster (tight city-street 90-degree turns, for example). But the handbrake scrubs speed and kills your exit momentum. A proper Scandinavian flick carries more speed through the slide because you're using weight transfer rather than rear-wheel lockup. The handbrake should be your backup plan for when you misjudge the flick, not your primary tool. Learn the flick first, then add the handbrake as a correction tool. The drivers who handbrake every corner are the ones finishing mid-pack in rally events.
Practice Progression
Start on a wide dirt corner with no obstacles — the dirt circuit in the FH6 rally expansion area is perfect. Drive the same corner 20 times without flicking to establish a baseline time. Then start adding small flicks — just 15-20 degrees of turn-away. As you get comfortable, increase the turn-away angle and the snap speed. Your lap times will actually get worse for the first 15-20 attempts while you develop the muscle memory. Then, on attempt 25 or so, it'll click — you'll nail a perfect flick, carry 10 km/h more through the corner than your baseline, and suddenly understand why rally drivers have been doing this since the 1960s.